Wednesday

STOCKTON — If you visit Vittoria Bossi’s second-story office at the Waterfront Warehouse, it means you will be meeting with a seasoned Stockton defense attorney.

Hopefully, you aren’t in any trouble, but even if you are, when you sit down with Bossi, you won’t be alone.

Also in attendance will be six feral cats, some huddled in dark corners of the office, some hiding behind furniture, some lurking within a skyscraper of cathouses, and, perhaps, one named Ray who is clinging to Bossi.

“It’s the duty of a responsible community person to take care of the animals,” the 52-year-old Bossi said earlier this month as one of the formerly stray waterfront cats sat on her lap and licked her left arm. “That’s how the family came to be here.”

Here’s the cat roster in Bossi’s office, along with the story on how each got his or her name:

• Elly May Clampett: Named for a character on the old “Beverly Hillbillies” TV series because she “represents the east side of Stockton.” Obviously, this is an “Okieville” reference.

• Ray: He’s blind, and if you are old enough you probably can guess he is named after Ray Charles, the late singer who also was sightless.

• Gandalf: He’s gray and white and named for the wizard in the “Lord of the Rings.” “In addition to being gray,” Bossi said, “he is quite mischievous.”

• Fat Tony Gambino: “He’s twice the size of his siblings and he likes to steal things,” Bossi said. “If you look at him he looks like a mobster.”

Bossi’s infatuation with Fat Tony Gambino is, in part, cultural.

“I’m Italian,” she said. “They call me Vito at the courthouse. So I had to have an Italian cat. And if you look at him, he does steal things. He’s super curious. He’ll come by and take a pen. He likes playing with things on my desk. If you leave a necklace out, he’ll carry it off.”

There is also a more serious side to this story.

Bossi, for years, has provided pro bono legal services to the Delta Humane Society. She says anyone can take part in reducing the population of feral cats in the community.

During an interview, she made sure to plug Stockton’s ACT Spay/Neuter Clinic, which is near Oak Park and offers reasonably priced services to those who bring feral cats in to get them fixed.

“You can really do a lot in your neighborhood if you just take a feral in and get it spayed,” Bossi said.

Not everyone who comes to her office is enamored of her cat collection, though.

Some are allergic. Others are ailurophobic — they suffer from a fear of cats. For these rare cases, Bossi said she is always happy to meet clients downstairs at Nena’s Mexican Restaurant or outside the Waterfront Warehouse, weather permitting.

But most office visitors sense that an attorney who cares for animals — especially blind ones like Ray — is also likely to handle humans’ legal matters with an equal measure of compassion.

“They have the run of the place,” Bossi said. “The couch is theirs. They’re pretty much in everything. People come up to see them. … They’ve become kind of the talk of the waterfront.”